XP is very stable and we all know how to work in it, but it's soon to be a thing of the past. There is a lot of good in the new operating systems, and the faster boot times crush what XP can do which is huge for a carpc.

So I've heard. Well i ordered an SSD for the car pc..I'm still on the fence about putting back XP or should I make the jump to w7...so far the only good thing I've heard of W7 was its ability to manage SSD's better. WXP has no support built in for SSD's

From talking to people about OS's this weekend, 7 is the new XP, and 8 is the new Vista. With 8, people are divided into love it and hate it camps. I found a utility called "Win8 StartButton", and it brings back a windows 7 style interface, but leaves the Metra interface there, so you still have access to it's features. I am giving 8 an fair and honest try, but I still find myself going back to the windows 7 interface to get things done.

i haven't done any more then tinker with 8 a little at electronics stores on demo pc's, and the biggest hurdle for me is that start screen. i don't need any of that auto-update junk. i don't keep up on facebook, email, or care what's trending in, well, anything.. if i want to know whats going on, i'll look it up. i couldn't even figure out how to get to any real settings, or get to the command prompt in it-- which i tend to use a lot instead of hunting for the program..

i think the xp/vista comparison is a really good example-- that was really the main reason i've taken to win7 so well, and for the same reason avoided vista, and now it appears win8, the main reason being that i just don't need that kind of functionality anywhere..

I don't like W8..the metro interface should of been laid out for touch scrreen oriented pc's. The OS by default should detect if the computer is touch screen capable or at least ask. The leap from point and click ala xp, w7..to w8 was too big of a leap. I just don't like it. I'll stick to xp or w7 for my car pc. I wish RR or centrafuse came in Mac flavors

All Metro apps can be moved and/or unpinned and Live updates on any metro tile can be switched off with two mouse clicks.

IMHO the Metro screen can be converted into a one click Start menu and/or a launch screen for all your Window application that normally clutter the desktop or the Start menu.

Almost all the main window setting including the command prompt are available with one right click of the mouse and selectable from a small popup menu, Win8 fast start logic and stability are really welcome in a car PC environment.

If you ignore some of the hyperventilating crap written about Metro by some PC mags and testers you may find the way you can use the Metro screen and how quick it is to access quite rewarding.

Anyway, after using the release version for a week or so there is no way I will go back to Win7 or any other version of Windows (I used the pre-release versions for quite some time as well).

I changed to WIN-8 from Win7 for faster execution and load times and the "under the hood" code changes and not for the Metro interface. I too believed the crap about the world ending without the old start menu. I mainly work from the Desktop and find the Metro screen (Menu) easy to modify and take advantage of, even when mostly used to launch Desktop applications.

I definitely plan on installing this setup on a SSD. With the way prices have come down I really don't see why anyone wouldn't go that route for a carpc.

I had figured that most of the complaints about the metra interface had a lot to do with inexperience at this point. Combine that with the fact that every OS will need tweaking after launch and I'm not surprised or worried. With Microsoft I really don't expect any OS to be "ready" until at least one service pack comes out.

So I'm just about ready to start putting the final pieces of my first setup into a car and am at a crossroads.

I'm loving some of the stuff I'm seeing with people playing with Windows 8, but am not ready to jump head first into relying on it as my front end or spend the cash on the 10.1 multi-touch screen just yet.

So lets say I end up using RR or one of the other options, is there any significant reason not to get Windows 8? The cost for both options new is the same, and for the sake of the future I'd like to not have to waste the money on an upgrade if I don't need to.

So what do you guys think?

For a windows8 car pc, can I ask you what app you are using for bluetooth phone as dialer and contact from the metro interface? I was wondering if this is possible without having to use centrafuse or similar front end